t:. toastcrumbs

Skiing!!! Woohoo!. Well, actually, Snowboarding!!! Was pleased to find that I could still do the basic turns I had learnt last winter. Rob and I shared a tutor for a 3 hour lesson – I was carving by the end of it and by the time I gave it up for snowboarding I was carving :) On the Tuesday we ditched the boards for skiis, which was a good idea, because we hadn’t seen half the slopes of Zermatt. We took a series of lifts that took us up to the top of Kliene Matterhorn (Matterhorn is a neighbouring peak) – this was the highest cable car in Europe – they had literally tunneled into the summit to get the cable car there! From that point, we skiied onto a large glacier (the skiiable part!) and dropped (very fast) down into Italy to have hot chocolate and pasta in Italy. One of the best days skiing I’ve ever had.

Arrived back in London for another quick unpack and repack in order to get ready for my ski trip the next day. While I had been away, the boiler had packed up – we had had plumbers in at £100/hour but they were unable to fix it. So spent the night wrapped up in multiple layers with no heating! Went out next day to buy Rudy a heater. Also ordered one for myself online so that it was waiting for me when arrived back.

On Thursday evening, Rob picked me up and we drove to Folkstone where we were meeting the Oak Hall coach. Had dinner in Folkstone at a funny Italian restaurant – seemed to be a cliche of what English seaside restaurants should be like. Coach journey started at 10pm – Rob and I managed to scrounge front row seats (on the top deck of the double decker) We went onto the Eurotunnel which meant that about an hour later we were in France and on the way to Switzerland. I slept till we got to the border of Switzerland, so overall it was quite an easy journey. Rob didn’t :(
* Sunrise in France near Swiss border

On the evening of Boxing Day it snowed. I went out for an early walk in the morning to take some photos. When I arrived back there was a snowball fight going on, so joined in that :) Also pulled Caroline around on Nana’s sledge (which L and I used back in Christmas of 1983 I think).

Christmas! Went to church in the morning at Diss then went back to the Trench’s and we all opened pressies. Then had a really lovely roast turkey dinner. On Boxing Day we all went to the Leinsters for the day. First time I’ve seen their new “barn conversion style” house. Very nice place.

Went for a long walk out in the countryside with Alasdair. Saw some deer. We picked some holly to decorate Nana’s lounge.